Soil nutrition: NZ start-up to explore fulvic acid use for sports nutrition, gut, and immune health
At present, the company’s flagship and only product is a 500ml golden-coloured fulvic acid tonic, with a recommended daily intake of 20ml which contains 2.5mg of standardised fulvic acid.
The product is already present in over 100 physical stores in New Zealand, including Health 3000 and Hardy’s.
Having received the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) backing worth NZD$720k from the government, the company will dive deeper into the R&D of new products, conduct human clinical trials, and scale up production to meet rising demand.
Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia, director Rhys Brooking said the company extracted the fulvic acid from a 20-million-year-old peat, which also contains trace minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron.
When present in soil, fulvic acid helps to transport minerals and remove toxins from the plants.
In the same way, when humans consume fulvic acid, the same processes take place at the cellular level, Brooking explained.
“The whole theory of this is that if you have a healthy cell, you have a higher immunity, you have more energy and other benefits,” he said.
He added that while the company was the not first in the world to discover the wonders of fulvic acid, it has been a pioneer in the industry in terms of product development and extraction of fulvic acid from soil.
The company had spent about 2.5 years in making the first tonic product.
In the upcoming months, the company plans to add on another functional beverage which combines fulvic acid and bioactive ingredients with known health functions.
It will also look into how fulvic acid, when combined with other ingredients, can boost gut health, immunity, general wellness, and sports nutrition, including energy drink.
The aim of the new product development is also to help the general public understand the soil extract nutrient better.
“It takes a lot of education for people to understand product and benefits of fulvic acid.
“This is why we are focused on doing new product development because we can look at how the product could be made better with bioactive ingredients that people are familiar with.”
Extraction process
The making of the fulvic acid involves procedures that mimic tea making.
Brooking said the process would start off with blending peat with pure certified organic mineral water drawn straight from the ground.
After which, golden water containing fulvic acid, being lighter in molecular weight floats to the top, while humic, the organiser fertiliser present in peat sinks to the bottom.
Markets
The company is eyeing expansion in key global markets, including the US where its products are already available on Amazon and China where the products are sold on Taobao.
It is also selling the product in New Caledonia, which was one of its first export markets.
